The Silver Gryphon

"In celebration of Golden Gryphon Press's 25th book, writers who contributed to the first 24 books were asked to write a story that best defines them as writers. The result is an anthology of stories ranging from fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror to genres that are often a combination of all four. Warren Rochelle portrays a struggle between magical and normal humans. George Zebrowski questions how to reclaim one's life when thrust two and a half years into the past. Andy Duncan combines literary style with southern heritage in a strange tale of courtship on a ghost trolley car. Michael Bishop spins the sad tale of a dead Vietnam soldier who wonÆt die and continues to lay down his life to help others. James Patrick Kelly paints a world where people are regulated, even in their ability to become parents, and there is no place for dissenting views. The wide range in style, tone, and content in these tales provides genre fans with a diverse spectrum of short fiction."

From Publishers Weekly

In this celebratory anthology, the 25th Golden Gryphon book from editors Turner and Halpern, the 20 talented contributors tend to avoid the conventions of genre SF and emphasize heroism, win or loss. Some authors bring back favorite settings and characters, like Kage Baker in his tale of scavenging Company time-travelers, "A Night on the Barbary Coast." Others tell new tales in familiar voices, such as Andy Duncan's folkloric fantasy, "The Haw River Trolley," or George Zebrowski's character study of a time exile, "Takes You Back." Michael Bishop pays homage to Lucius Shepard in "The Door Gunner," a story of na‹ve Americans in Vietnam finding how little they know about death and life. In "After Ildiko," Shepard himself focuses on not-so-innocent Americans bringing their own darkness abroad on a barge trip into the Guatemalan jungle. Making prejudice against "faeries" literal, Warren Rochelle's plea for understanding alternate life forms, "The Golden Boy," shows that fantasy can also comment powerfully on reality. Even when rooted in the routine tragedies of daily life (death of a parent, senility, midlife crisis), these stories clearly view the common through eyes trained to see the fantastic. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Golden Gryphon's twenty-fifth book consists of 20 new stories by 20 authors it has already published. From the annals of alternate history, R. Garcia y Robertson presents a medieval Middle East swashbuckler; Richard A. Lupoff, a goofy outcome of the 2000 U.S. election. James Patrick Kelly and Richard Paul Russo provide bleak visions of a near future in which the gaps between controllers and controlled, and between rich and poor, are yawning chasms. In Paul Di Filippo's near future, however, democracy has triumphed through technology, though his hero has to scramble to save it. George Zebrowski offers a story of lovers parted by parallel realities; Ian Watson, of lovers sundered by population control. Obscure pop-cultural figures--horror movie actor George Zucco and bluegrass precursor Charlie Poole--star in Howard Waldrop's take on senile dementia and Andy Duncan's Appalachian tall tale, respectively. Best of (a very good) show: Jeffrey Ford's rendering of a grown son observing his mother's death--a small masterpiece of affection, though it is neither fantasy nor sf. Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Gary Turner and Marty Halpern are editors at Golden Gryphon Press. Gary Turner lives in Urbana, Illinois. Marty Halpern lives in San Jose, California.

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